The News & Observer by Brian Gordon
Hundreds of protesters gathered Friday afternoon on the grassy Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh to champion the value of scientific research.
The rally was one of more than 30 planned Stand Up for Science 2025 events nationwide, from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, to counter sweeping Trump administration actions attendees say have hamstrung critical, and at times life-saving, work.
“My husband and I have come out here to show our support for science, for researchers, and to show that science and research is not something you can just push away,” said Katherine Sivek, a language instructor from Zebulon who last year was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Seated in a motorized wheelchair, Sivek held a sign that emphasized the importance National Institutes of Health funding has had on her treatment at Duke University’s ALS Clinic.
NIH is the nation’s largest public funder of scientific research. In 2024, it awarded North Carolina researchers just shy of $2 billion across 2,822 projects, according to the NIH. While North Carolina is the ninth most populated state, it was sixth in NIH funding last year.
Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill combined to receive more than half the state’s total funding.
Since Donald Trump took office, the agency’s grant approval process has stalled. The administration’s 15% cap on “indirect” NIH grant payments for facilities and administrative costs, which is being challenged in court, would mean large medical institutions like Duke and UNC get hundreds of millions of dollars less each year.
Speakers at the Stand Up For Science rally included local researchers, nonprofit advocates and U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, a Wake County Democrat. Signs held throughout the crowd rebuked cost-cutting efforts by billionaire Elon Musk, who has led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency.
“I don’t care if they’re not your political party, you need to contact members of Congress and tell them the consequences of these cuts,” Ross told a small number of rallygoers after addressing the full crowd.
Stephan Moll, a blood clot expert in UNC’s Division of Hematology, said he attended the rally to promote scientific veracity.
“It’s this introduction into the thinking of people that science and truth doesn’t really matter,” he said. “That you make something up, and if you repeat it many times, then people think maybe that is a truth.”
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